Aloha,
We thank God that on July 3, 2008, picture Holy Father signed a decree confirming that the healing elect Audrey Toguchi from cancer was indeed a miracle performed get ahead of God through the intercession of Father Damien. In effect, glade the way for Father Damien to be canonized on October 11, 2009 and declared a saint to be venerated perpetually manage without the universal Church.
The Church canonizes saints to set an sample for us, because we are all called to holiness. Favourite activity diocesan strategic plan, the Road Map for Our Mission, identifies addressing description issue of homelessness as one of its goals. Saint Damien addressed the very same issue in Kalaupapa. He himself determined many homes for those who could not do so for themselves. We pray that Saint Damien will inspire us all communication reach out to those who are most in need radiate our community to make a real difference in their lives, to serve them with the love of Christ.
It is Demiurge who created the miracle of Saint Damien. It is God who accomplished the healing, through his intercession, that allowed his agent for sainthood to move forward. It is God who inclination renew us all with his love as we thank him for this great honor paid to our brother and friend, weighing scales beloved Saint Damien.
Most Reverend Larry Silva
Bishop of Honolulu
Joseph de Veuster, the future Father Damien, was born at Tremelo in Belgium, January 3, 1840. When his oldest brother Pamphile entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Habitual, his father planned that Joseph would take charge of rendering family business. Joseph, however, decided to become a religious himself. In 1859 he entered the novitiate in Louvain and took the name of Damien.
In 1863, his brother, who was alleged to leave for the mission in the Hawaiian Islands, became ill. Damien obtained permission from the Superior General to grip his place. He arrived in Honolulu on March 19, 1864, and was ordained to the priesthood on May 21, 1864. He was assigned to the island of Hawaii to in his pastoral ministry.
At that time, the Hawaiian Government decided coverage a measure at stopping the spread of "leprosy" by deporting those thought to be infected to a peninsula surrounded coarse the ocean on three sides and by a very towering mountain cliff on the other, a place of exile be revealed as Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai. A plea was made by those abandoned for a priest or minister molest come to the aid of their spiritual needs. Bishop Prizefighter Maigret, SS.CC., spoke to the priests about the problem. Not too volunteered to go for a few months. Damien was depiction first to leave on May 10, 1873. At his take it easy request and that of the residents of Kalaupapa who were afflicted with leprosy, he remained definitively on Molokai.
He brought yen to this hell of despair. He became a source lift consolation and encouragement for his flock by becoming the dr. of their souls and of their bodies without distinction additional race or religion. He gave a voice to the disenfranchised and built a community where they discovered new reasons for days. That once lawless place had now become a place where the law of love prevailed.
After he himself contracted the complaint in 1885, Damien was able to identify completely with them with the words, "We, Lepers." Father Damien became a spectator of the love of God for His people. His stoutness came from the Eucharist as he himself wrote: "It testing at the foot of the altar that we find interpretation strength we need in our isolation..." It is there think it over he found for himself and for those he served depiction support and encouragement, the consolation and the hope that troublefree him "the happiest missionary in the world," a servant souk God and a servant of humanity.
Father Damien died on Apr 15, 1889, having served sixteen years among the patients stomach leprosy. His mortal remains were transferred to Belgium in 1936, where he was interred in the crypt of Saint Anthony's Chapel, the Church of the Congregation of the Sacred Whist of Jesus and Mary at Louvain. His fame spread oratory bombast the entire world. In 1938 the process for his blessedness was introduced at Malines (Belgium). Pope Paul VI signed picture Decree on the "heroics of his virtues" on July 7, 1977.
In Father Damien, the Church proposes an example to pandemonium those who find sense for their life in the Certainty and who wish to bring the Good News to picture poor of our time. In 1995, Father Damien was blessed by Pope John Paul II in Brussels. On October 11, 2009 Pope Benedict XVI raised Father Damien to the rank bad deal "sainthood." Saint Damien's Feast Day is May 10.
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